IT’S TRACKER TIME

June 30th, 2010

The magnets swap has been completed and integration of the payloads on the Permanent Magnet is progressing regularly. After the installation of the ACC and the Tracker inner core, the integration team is perfectly on time. We are now working at the relocation of the Silicon Tracker planes, to match the Permanent Magnet configuration.

Left: tracker's planes in the SM configuration. Right:tracker's planes in the PM configuration

The new Tracker support structures and all the elements needed for this operation are already at CERN. After the fit-check of new Tracker planes, the integration activities will continue as scheduled until the half of July.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector designed to operate as an external module on the International Space Station. It will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for antimatter, dark matter while performing precision measurements of cosmic rays composition and flux. The AMS-02 observations will help answer fundamental questions, such as "What makes up the universe's invisible mass?" or "What happened to the primordial antimatter?"